


Flowers and Ink

by emberchii



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: I am actually the most awkward person w/ tags and writing I apologize, Lev is an awkward florist, M/M, Yaku is a tattoo artist, aka that one au that no one ever asked for, implied asanoya - Freeform, implied daisuga, tattoo artist/florist au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-09
Updated: 2015-11-09
Packaged: 2018-04-30 17:48:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5173448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emberchii/pseuds/emberchii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yaku went to the flower shop next door to get inspiration for a commission, not to get a huge crush on the awful florist that worked there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flowers and Ink

**Author's Note:**

> I am actual trash and writing this made me feel like 10x v

Thunder rolled from the distance, drawing Yaku out of his little world to glance up at the dark clouds slowly rolling over the city. The tattoo artist turned almond irises to the sky in distaste, unhappy with the sudden overcoming of the misty blue skies the had the entire morning. His neutral facial expression morphed into a slightly irritated scowl, lithe fingers curling up unhappily around his pen.

“Oi, Yaku, calm down. It’s just a little rain.” The brunette was pulled out of his irritated trance by one of his coworkers as he made his way of the back, wiping his hands with a rag. Daichi Sawamura’s fingers were probably permanently stained with ink, but the taller spent much of his time off scrubbing it from his skin.

“I don’t particularly want to go out into the rain to get lunch later, Daichi.” His tone was dry—Yaku hated rain when he had things to bring to and from the shop.

“Your fault for not taking up Kuroo’s bento offer.” Daichi pointed out. Iwaizumi, who had been sitting in his own station to check up on everything, looked up at the noise. It seemed he had taken up Kuroo’s offer as well, with the way his eye flit away in embarrassment.

“No, you know his bentos make me sick.” Yaku scrunched up his nose and slid down in his seat, scowling ferociously. He tucked his knees up a little closer to him, going back to sketching out various designs for a recent commission. His eyebrows knit together as he scribbled out yet another design, wanting to stab his own through the paper and throw it all across the room.

Working and co-owning a tattoo parlor put serious strain on Yaku’s artistic patience.

Daichi watched him in amusement before settling down near the front desk, flipping through the appointments and consultations they had for the day—almost none, really. Yaku knew that today would be a slow day as he saw the other man sulk over, expression turning downcast at the lack of names written down.

“This will be a long day.” Yaku observed, ripping out the seventh piece of paper used for this damn design and throwing it at the trashcan. It ricocheted off the edge, landing in the corner behind the tin trashcan.

“Let's just hope someone comes in at all.” Daichi responded. They fell into silence after that, Yaku attempting to come up with his commission and Daichi cleaning his station for the day. The rain started to come down, a few splatters hitting the clear glass that separated them from the outside world. It turned into a steady downpour, battering everything outside. Everyone was sprinting through the rain outside, umbrellas overhead to shelter them.

Nishinoya burst in soon enough with a bag of sweet rolls in hand, his brown eyes glinting under the fluorescent lights. “I brought breakfast!” He grinning and dropping the bag in front of Yaku. He stared at it for a split second before the smell wafted into his nose and instantly his mouth was watering.

“Asahi’s honey rolls?” He questioned. Daichi and Iwaizumi looked over immediately, eyes fixing on the bag that filled the salon with a heavenly scent. Nishinoya just looked proud as he nodded, stepping away as Yaku snatched the bag and dug through it, pulling out a roll. Iwaizumi was by his side in seconds, plucking out a few from the bag and passing over over to Daichi.

Nishinoya had a boyfriend at the bakery across the street, so he tended to bring them food during the morning shift—in fact, that was where Yaku tended to get his lunch. The little devil sat down in his station, cranked up the music, and started to sing along to the western rock songs pounding through the speakers.

Yaku popped a roll into his mouth, taking a bite as he continued to fashion out a raven, nested in a grove of flowers. He gnawed on the end of his pen, eyebrows crinkling together. It still didn’t look right…

He got to his feet, closing the cover and the sketchbook and grabbing his jacket.

“Heading out? Yaku, don’t you hate rain?” Iwaizumi called over at the shortest member of the salon and got a nasty glare in return.

“I’m going to the flower shop next door.” He said simply. ”These damn flowers don’t look right, so I’m going to go see if I can make them look somewhat realistic. I’ve got my cell,” Yaku pointed at Iwaizumi. “If I’m not back before Akaashi shows, text me.” He opened the door and stepped out into the rain, almost immediately being pelted in the face with cold shards of rain. He hissed and pulled up his collar, rushing to get through the rain and stepping in puddles just to get to the shop right next door. He stepped into the flower shop, a welcoming jingle going off from above his head as he stepped inside, being bathed in warm light.

“Hello!” Yaku looked towards the voice after sweeping water off of his jacket and creating a puddle around his feet. He was eye-level with a little insignia on the employee aprons. He lifted his head, having to tip his chin back purely to look the employee in the eye. He must have been new—blonde hair that bordered on looking silver and intense green eyes weren’t familiar to the short tattoo artist. “Can I help you?”

“Oh,” Yaku blinked and then flushed slightly. He had been staring. “No, I’m fine—”

“You're really short.” Yaku stopped mid-sentence and looked up at the employee. His eye twitched and he grit his teeth, immediately clenching his fists and holding them tight to his body. Lev gave a charming smile that made it seem like he didn’t even notice that he was making the artist angry.

He moved straight past him, ducking under his arm and pulling his sketchbook out from the crook of his arm, where it was safe and dry. He flipped it to a clean page and felt around in his pockets for a pen or pencil or something -- and then cursed really loudly. Heat rushed to his cheeks as he looked around, hoping no one heard. He couldn’t believe he had forgotten his pen back at the parlor -- and Yaku refused to go back out in the rain to get one.

He made his way back towards the front, dragging his feet in embarrassment. “Hey,” He called, catching the attention of the tall employee. “Do you have a pen that I could borrow?”

Lev turned to face him, eyes flickering. He smiled. “Yeah! Gimme a sec to go find them-- Oh! Suga-san, where did you move the pens?”

A familiar head of silver hair popped out from the back, cheek smeared with dirt. Yaku lit up at the sight of his high-school friend. “They should be on the shelf underneath the counter, why?” whiskey brown eyes travelled over to Yaku, who stood behind Lev while clutching his sketchbook tightly against his chest. “Yaku! Hey, why are you here?”

“You know him?” Lev cocked his head to the side in a slight bout of confusion. “You’re friends with a lot of short people, aren’t you Suga?”

Okay, nope. Yaku felt the vein in his temple throb and he threw a pretty well aimed kick, catching Lev in the back. The taller of the trio congregated in the store let out a terrible noise that sounded like someone dying and hunched over for a second. Yaku flushed in both anger and embarrassment and growled. “Stop commenting on my height, asshole.”

“Yaku!” Suga rushed out from behind the counter. “Don’t injure my employee—he’s almost to Hinata’s skill level with flowers, please don’t kill him!!”

Yaku sent a blatant look of distaste at Lev, who was straightening up and looking winded. And then the tall boy was staring really intently at him and it was unnerving as literally all hell. Yaku took a step away from Lev and closer to Suga, gratefully taking the pen and then absolutely booking it to the other side of the shop. He slipped behind a display and almost slid down to the floor, cheeks burning furiously.

He picked out a pair of flowers—little clusters of soft pink petals with a darker centre—and he started sketching them out in his book. Eyes flickered back and forth from the paper to the flowers, slowly fleshing out the likeness. Yes, these were much better. That little cluster of doodles made Yaku feel considerably better about his artistic ability and he slowly fashioned more into a nest of sorts. He sketched out the basic shape of the bird, wings stretched out just a tad to give the appearance of settling down.

It was almost quiet, only the sound of the two employees moving around and the soft music playing from overhead lingering within the small shop. Yaku felt himself slide into a peaceful state, just drawing and letting the white noise around him envelop him heartily.

“You're very good.” Yaku jumped, almost swinging his fist back to hit the man standing behind him. Instead he cradled it around his sketchbook, eyeing Lev from the side. He was smiling and it was weird that Yaku found himself wanting to see that smile more. It was mischievous and cocky, something that the little man generally was not. At least, not since high school.

“Thank you…” Yaku hugged his sketchbook tighter to him in an almost protective manner, brown eyes flickering over Lev as if to ask why he was here. 

“Did you do those?” Lev pointed at Yaku’s neck and the tattoo artist brought one hand up, fingers brushing subconsciously on the marked skin. People in town didn’t normally just blatantly point out the in, on his skin, but Lev seemed to care very little about that.

“Yeah. Sort of. I designed them and Kuroo inked them for me.” It was true—his co-owner was phenomenal at inking, and the lines had come out crisp and clear and beautiful on his skin. Little birds flew around at the nape of his neck and wrapped around to his collarbone, short lines of kanji pressed against his biceps and a stylized cougar was pressed into his back—even more than just those. All of which were his creations, and Yaku was damn well proud of them.

“So you work next door?”

“Yeah.”

“Why haven’t I seen you before, then?” Yaku thought about how to answer that. He tended to busy himself at his own station with his book to do commissions and he didn't generally leave his store until he had to go home. Showed up early for opening and left a little after closing.

“Busy. I don’t know.”

They fell into a peaceful silence after that, Lev watering some of the plants and raising up their petals with soft fingers. He checked the soil occasionally, mumbling to himself, and it melted into the background noise once again. Yaku settled for the design and scrutinized it, looking for even the slightest flaw and, finding none, was satisfied.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, collecting the attention of both of the people around. Yaku pulled out the sleek machine and flipped it open, checking the message from Iwiazumi.

_[From: Iwaizumi]  
Akaashi is en route, get your ass back over here _

Yaku laughed a little bit at Iwaizumi’s blunt messaging skills and sent a message back.

_[From: Yaku]  
Be right there. I’m gonna be soaked though_

He slid his phone back into his pocket and found Lev staring pretty intensely at him once again and he flinched away, surprised.

“You're leaving?”

“Yeah…” Lev hummed and then disappeared into the back. Yaku shrugged and moved forward to get out and get back to the store, because if he was Kate to an appointment, Iwaizumi would kill him.

“Yaku-san!” Lev was next to him again, all smiles and bright eyes. He was holding an umbrella in his hands. “Let me walk you back so you're not absolutely drenched, okay?”

Shit. Yaku flushed at the offer and tucked his sketchbook back under his jacket, wrapping the thick fabric around himself. “Alright. Thanks.”

The two of them stepped out, Lev opening up the umbrella and holding it at a slight angle to prevent the two of them from getting soaked. They walked in silence over to the awning of the tattoo parlour, attracting the attention of Daichi and Nishinoya inside. Yaku kind of smiled a bit as they reached the door.

“Thanks.” He repeated. Lev just grinned and waved before turning and making his way back to the flower shop, quickly disappearing inside. Yaku pushed his way inside, his senses attacked by loud music and the smell of ink.

Daichi was giving him a smile and Nishinoya had on the most shit-eating grin Yaku had ever seen from him. Yaku felt his ears redden and he sat down at his station, busying himself with setting up.

Akaashi walked in at that moment and promptly saved him from a highly unwanted confrontation about why he had a very tall, very pretty boy walk him back over—especially when it was rather common knowledge in the salon that Yaku was about as straight as a circle.

Yaku silently promised that he would buy Akaashi lunch.

\----------------------------------

Yaku kind of found excuses to go visit the flower shop after that—one of the the soon-to-be many being that he highly underestimated the size of the sandwiches that they served at the bakery and now had half of a sandwich that he wasn’t going to eat.

“I’m going to go see if one of Suga’s employees wants it,” Yaku said simply, wrapping the other half back up and getting onto his feet, reaching out to snatch his coat.

“Are you gonna go give it to your new crush?” Nishinoya grinned at him and Yaku scoffed. He did not have a crush on Lev.

“Shut it, Yuu.” Yaku responded, absconding out the door and into the weak sunshine. It was cold, but the trees were changing colours and it was pretty enough that it made up for the uncomfortable temperatures. He was kind of sluggish as he made his way next door, yawning at how long the morning had been. And long it had been, with few customers because the crowd didn’t tend to come in until three or four.

“H—ey,” Yaku pushed open the door, calling out over the jingling of the bell. A little ball of sunshine popped his house out from behind the display, brown eyes bright as he spotted their store’s neighbor.

“Morisuke-san!” Hinata beamed and bounced over, orange hair bobbing as he bounded across the shop in just a few leaps. He landed almost directly in front of him, eyes bright and he was absolutely ecstatic. “Why are you here?”

Yaku shrugged before holding up the bag, which had the half of the sandwich. “Leftovers. Is Lev here?”

“Yeah!” Hinata grinned spun around, cupping his hands around his mouth as a microphone. “Lev! Someone is here for you!!”

Lev came out from the back room, pulling off dirty gardening gloves and dropping them on the counter, eyes holding a question. The green orbs slid from Hinata to Yaku and he lit up substantially, his neutral expression turning into a big, cat-like grin. “Yaku!” He bounded over. “What are you doing here?”

Yaku blinked at the excitement coming off of him. “Uh, here.” He held out the sandwich that was wrapped up. “I didn’t… I got too much, so I figured I would give it to you.”

Lev took the sandwich half and grinned. Yaku smiled back, ruffled Hinata’s hair, and then promptly ran outside feeling highly embarrassed. He flushed brightly, looking up the sky, cursing himself because maybe he liked Lev.

\-----------------------------------

Yaku continuously started showing up at the store with the excuse of getting better with flora because it was starting to get higher in demand—which wasn’t completely a lie. Ever since he had done his raven and flower commission, he had quite a few people come to him for things similar with flora and animals—his most recent project being an owl with flowers pressing against its wings.

The excuse seemed to work and, for the most part Yaku was working diligently on his commissions. Sometimes his eyes would stray and he would watch Lev roam around the store, helping customers and chattering happily with Hinata or just watering the flowers.

Yaku flipped to another page after a little while of attempting to draw flowers and instead started drawing the man that had captured his attention the entire morning. Fine, long features, bright hair and harsh eyes and a mischievous smile. He slowed his own at the crook of his mouth, staring down at the picture. He kind of let his mind wander, drawing the pen down across a long neck and wide shoulders, a delicate collarbone forming on the paper until he had a basic headshot of the florist.

Who just so happened to be making his way towards Yaku.

The artist flushed and flipped the page back to the owl sketch, ears and cheeks burning furiously. Lev leaned over behind him, looking down at the sketch that was roughly beginning to take place.

“Who is that for? Another commission?” Lev cocked his head to the side and Yaku shuddered, suddenly highly sensitive to the Japanese-Russian standing almost directly behind him.

“Yeah.” Yaku chewed on the end of his pen, teeth grating against the smooth metal. “It’s for one of my acquaintances—I think it was a lost bet, maybe?”

“Cool!” Lev grinned and stepped around Yaku, spraying the flourishing flowers and checking them for any damage. He started humming for a little while and Yaku ended up staring at him. His drawing hardly did justice to the man standing before him—he was all curves and smooth angles and Yaku felt a warm heat settle into his stomach.

He zoned out for a moment, just staring at Lev and not really comprehending when they made eye contact.

“Yaku-san?”

Yaku broke out of his trance, turned red, and automatically looked away. He mumbled about having to go back to the shop, turned on heel, and ran the hell out of there. He held his sketchbook tightly against him, entering the parlour and brushing past Daichi and Iwaizumi as fast as possible.

“You okay, Yaku?” Daichi settled down nearby Yaku, quirking an eyebrow at the highly embarrassed artist.

“I am so fucked.” He said, voice catching. He groaned, sliding down in his seat and pressing his face into his sketchbook. “I am so, so, so, so fucked.”

“You like Suga’s newest employee, don’t you?” Yaku didn’t even have to look at Daichi to know his expression—he could practically hear his grin. They sat there in a relative silence, Yaku kind of wallowing in despair and Daichi grinning at him. Iwaizumi seemed to want to stay out of Yaku’s personal affairs, so he was on the opposite side of the parlour.

Yuu poked his head out from where he was working and cheered a little bit. “Go for the butt, Yaku!”

Yaku threw his sketchbook at Noya and smacked him in the face.

\----------------------------------------

Yaku had more or less come to terms with the fact that he liked Lev, a lot more than he really thought, and he was now having way too hard of a time coping. The flower shop had cranked up the heat so it was humid in the little area and the heat was a slap in the face compared the the biting chill from outside.

Yaku shed his jacket, tying it around his waist to make sure it didn't get absolutely filthy from the dirt that littered the ground. He wandered through the aisles of plants, looking around for something to draw, and upon noticing a new bundle of flowers, he flipped to a new page in his sketchbook. He was too busy drawing to notice Lev come up behind him, but the fingers brushing along the back of his neck certainly caught his attention.

He stiffened up, whirling around and dropping his sketchbook. Lev jerked back a little bit in surprise, eyes wide, and he spluttering out an apology but Yaku suddenly couldn’t focus on that. His eyes flickered to Lev’s lips and how he moved. The tattoo artist brought his hand up slowly, fingers brushing against Lev’s cheek and then down across his neck. Brown eyes flickered around to make sure Suga or Hinata weren’t around and he gently pulled Lev down, raising himself up onto his toes.

Lev’s breath caught as their lips brushed together. Yaku’s eyes fluttered closed and he tipped his head a little bit to press against Lev just a little more. Warm hands cupped his cheeks, long fingers entangling into the short brown locks.

It was kind of strange, kissing in the back of a flower shop, but Yaku didn’t really care. Yaku pulled back a little bit, lowering back down so that his feet were pressed flat against the ground. He looked at Lev, who had curled over a little more to stay close to him. His pupils were blown wide and there was pink dusted across his pale cheeks.

“Yaku…” Lev breathed out his name and Yaku felt his stomach twist, a warm weight settling in it.

“We should go out.” Yaku blurted. “I’ll… I dunno, we could go get coffee or something sometimes. And watch movies.”

“Can I kiss you more?” Lev was back to grinning dorkily and Yaku’s head swelled.

“Yeah.” Yaku pulled him back down into another kiss that was more laughing against each other’s mouths than actual kissing. They stared back there, job and sketchbook mostly forgotten until Suga found them kissing in the back of the store.

Suga just kind of smiled at them when they leaped away from each other, both of them bright red and embarrassed, and he just laughed.

“I’m dating Daichi, Yaku. I can completely understand not keeping your hands to yourself.”

Yaku groaned, picking up his sketchbook and wiping the dirt off of it unhappily, trying to hide his complete embarrassment. Lev was blushing and apologizing profusely, but Suga just pat them on the shoulders and made his way back to the front of the store. The duo stood there in an awkward silence before Yaku snuck a peek at Lev.

He had to pretty much stand on the very tips of his toes and he still had to bring Lev down, but he kissed the taller on the cheek.

“I’m going to head back to the shop.” He mumbled. Lev walked him up to the front, smiled brightly at him and kissed the top of his head.

“I’ll take you up on coffee later.” He whispered into Yaku’s hair.

Yaku smiled and waved before he left the building, pretty much skipping back to the parlour. His good mood did not go unnoticed, and Daichi grinned.

“Looks like Yaku got some.” Iwaizumi commented, grinning cheekily.

Yaku smacked him in the back of the head, grumbling angrily, but he swelled happily at the thought. Despite that, though, he grinned to himself and sat down at his station, wondering if Lev was feeling just as satisfied on the other side of the shared wall.


End file.
